Telluride Film Festival

TELLURIDE — The fast and furious drive through Glenwood Canyon and then along Highway 50 through Montrose toward the mountain town for the Telluride Film Festival ended in disappointment. We arrived 10 mintues late for the start of the trilogy “Red Riding,” which had been compared (more than favorably) to The Godfather.

What was not disappointing Day 1 were the number of folk from Denver and Colorado at a festival with international draw. While local star-in-the-making AnnaSophia Robb was doing appropriately high school things this weekend (like preparing for homecoming, according to mom Janet), her parents Janet and David were standing on Telluride’s main street partaking in the fest’s annual dinner bash and just beginning their first Telluride.

The Abernethys from Denver are not newbies. This year the Telluride (and Denver Film Society) veterans splurged on patron passes in order to could skip the lines (which can be long and end in tears). I’ve asked them to send missives along about their film experiences, which I’ll share. Saturday afternoon, they were Michael Haneke’s “The White Ribbon.” Sitting next to them for the showing of the stark examination of the roots of fascism were Aspen FilmFest honchos Laura Thielen and George Eldred. Friday, their program went gone online for the Sept. 30-Oct. 4 event.

Which explains how they could take in the 2-plus hour movie and yesterday’s “Red Riding” marathon. BTW: So far a number of people have expressed some bewilderment at renown film writer David Thomson’s comparison between The Godfather and “Red Riding,” the made-for-Brit TV trilogy set in West Yorkshire. We remain intrigued. Now the challenge is to fit a marathon viewing into the next two days.

Film & theater critic Lisa Kennedy likes to watch -- a lot. She also has a fondness for no-man’s lands, contested territories and Venn Diagrams. She believes the best place to live is usually on the border between two vibrant neighborhoods. Where better to apply this penchant for overlap and divergence than covering film and theater – two arts that owe so much to each other yet offer radically idiosyncratic pleasures? In another life, Kennedy was an Obie judge. In this one, she’s been a Pulitzer Prize judge in criticism, an Independent Spirit Award jurist and Colorado’s first member of the National Society of Film Critics.

More than a mash-up of the Running Lines and Diary of a Madmoviergoer blogs, Stage, Screen & In Between offers engaged takes on Colorado theater and film and pointed views on news from both coasts and both industries. Culture lovers, add your voices. Culture-makers, share your production journal entries and photos.